Future Sound Of London - Papa New Guinea

This release from The Future Sound Of London was one of the biggest hit of 1992, and was a turning point in their career. But on a design point of view, it is also a very interesting case when you compare this Belgian version with the original cover on their own UK label, Jumpin' & Pumpin'.

This beautiful cover was designed for the label R&S, who licenced the recording. But instead of using the same sleeve design, they decided to create one that would better fit with the visual style they were building for the label.

A funny point is the fact that it was released only on 7 inch on R&S... Maybe the need for a stronger visual impact was also a consequence of this.

The use of this strange mask and of this strong red background, balanced by the classicism of the typographies was giving the R&S covers a much more intruiging style than the UK one. Same tribal tone (related to the the song and its title), but with a much more refined twist.

The cover for the original 12" release on Jumpin' & Pumpin'

And the same happened with the album "Accelerator" that was soon to follow : of course, R&S wasn't very creative there, recycling the 7 inch images. But nonetheless did it showed, on the design point of view, the clear different approach compared to the UK art direction.

LP on R&S (Front)

LP on R&S (Back)

The FSOL duo was as much interested in visual design than in music. They were to do lots of their next covers themselves, using photographic montages, and image distortions mixed with 3D objects.

But these UK covers are a perfect example of the style they liked then : computer techno/pixelated images, bold and heavily distorted types, etc.

The cover for the original release on Jumping & Pumping

It was of course very up to date in the early 90', but let's say it aged very differently than the Belgian design. It looks so typically 90'...